A London-based AI food tech firm aims to prevent $1 billion worth of food waste by 2025.
Launched in 2013, Winnow provides food waste technology to restaurants and supermarkets to record how much is wasted.
One product is an artificial intelligence-led scale on which waste bins are placed: staff must record items they are throwing away via a touch screen.
Staff can then gain a report on what causes the most waste and how to reduce it in the future.
The company’s new product is also a scale but includes a camera to gradually learn the types of food being thrown into the bin.
Winnow co-founder Marc Zornes gained the idea for the business after creating the McKinsey Global Institute report, Resource Revolution: Meeting the World’s Energy, Materials, Food and Water Needs at his previous role at McKinsey & Company.
His team highlighted food waste as one of the biggest issues globally and said very little was being done about it, which inspired Zornes to start his own business.
“By halving food waste we are able to cut food costs for our clients by 3 per cent to 8 per cent while doing the right thing for the environment,” Zornes told BusinessCloud.
“To combat food waste, the first thing businesses need to do is to measure the extent of the problem.
“AI technology can gather data on tracking food waste and allow businesses to become smarter to pinpoint where the problem is arising. Winnow Vision uses this technology to help chefs cut costs on ingredient ordering and saving time on manual processes.
“Our goal is to reach $1bn in food waste prevented per annum by 2025.”
The product is live in over 1,000 kitchens in 40 countries worldwide including in hotels and restaurants such as IKEA and Hilto, and has saved its customers over $33m by reducing food waste.
The company has 120 employees based across offices in London, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, Iowa City, and Cluj Napoca.
The firm is due to take part in London’s Circular Economy Week from today, which will involve events and workshops to help ‘drive a resource-efficient and sustainable economy’.